Report: Trump Considering Firing Special Counsel Mueller

PBS Newshour anchor Judy Woodruff posted to Twitter Monday evening that Chris Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, told her that President Donald Trump is “”considering perhaps terminating” Robert Mueller as special counsel”.

Former FBI Director Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last month to investigate alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Recent reports indicate that Mueller is looking to expand his investigation to include the decision to fire his successor as FBI director, James Comey.

GQ described Mueller’s hiring for the investigation as a “Murderer’s Row of Prosecutors” and “men and women responsible for bringing down Nixon, Enron, and the mafia.”

No crimes have been alleged to have been committed, nor has President Trump been accused of any crimes. Comey testified last week that he had told Trump several times before he was fired that Trump was not under investigation.

Ruddy’s comment came the day after one of Trump’s personal attorneys, Jay Sekulow, declined to rule out the possibility that Trump might fire Mueller. Sekulow was being interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on ABC News’ This Week.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And finally, will the president promise not to interfere, not attempt at any time to order the deputy attorney general to fire Robert Mueller?

SEKULOW: Look, the president of the United States, as we all know, is a unitary executive. But the president is going to seek the advice of his counsel and inside the government as well as outside. And I’m not going to speculate on what he will or will not do.

But right now the role of the president is to govern the United States of America. He’s going to do that. He’s going to leave anything else to the lawyers. But I can’t imagine that that issue is going to arise. But that again is an issue that the president with his advisers would discuss if there was a basis.

I mean, George, if there was a basis upon which there was a question raised that raised the kind of issues that are serious, as in the situation with James Comey, the president has authority to take action. Whether he would do it is ultimately a decision the president makes.

I think that’s complete conjecture and speculation. The Constitution, it’s a unitary executive. You know that, you worked for a president.”

The Washington Examiner’s Byron York published a report late Sunday night in which D.C. lawyers, including some who worked at the Department of Justice, questioned whether Mueller should resign due to his close friendship and professional history with Comey.

One comment from a “(Capitol) Hill lawyer”:

It’s somewhat ironic, no? I mean, the whole purpose of the special counsel is to have a prosecutor from outside the government and outside of the normal chain of command because inherent conflicts render the Justice Department incapable of handling it. So, now the special counsel is a close friend (mentor/mentee relationship) with the star witness, who by his own admission leaked the memos at least in part to engineer the appointment of a special counsel. Only in Washington. You can’t make this stuff up.”